According to recently released reports, the FDA is investigating the link between Monster Energy drinks and five deaths, all of which occurred in the past year.

The reports were released under the Freedom of Information Act as part of a lawsuit filed by the mother of a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died in December after allegedly drinking two large cans of the hyper-caffeinated beverage. The official autopsy for the girl said the death was from "cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity."

Monster, of course, is denying any blame.

"Over the past 16 years Monster has sold more than 8 billion energy drinks, which have been safely consumed worldwide," the company said in an e-mailed statement sent through an outside spokesman, Evan Pondel. "Monster does not believe that its beverages are in any way responsible for the death of Ms. Fournier. Monster is unaware of any fatality anywhere that has been caused by its drinks."

For what it's worth, the FDA hasn't yet determined a link between energy drinks and heart attacks, although their spokesperson admits the tests aren't conclusive. "FDA continues to evaluate the emerging science on a variety of ingredients, including caffeine," an FDA spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The New York Times notes that the can of Monster Energy consumed by the 14-year-old has an absolutely absurd amount of caffeine.

The type of 24-ounce can of Monster Energy that the Maryland teenager, Anais Fournier, drank contains 240 milligrams of caffeine, three times the amount found in an 8-ounce can of Red Bull and about 50 milligrams more than in the 20-ounce size of Red Bull.

Why you would need more than 240 mg of caffeine is beyond me (unless you were, say, night blogging or working out), so maybe just stick to the one can for now.